English Translation

Kapellmeister Philipp de Monte and Regnart, well-known composers of their time. The court organist Luyton was also a highly respected sounder. The most important German composer around 1600, Hans Leo Hasler, who lived in Ausburg, was at least led on paper as a member of the court chapel, while his brother Jakob was employed as court organists. It is significant that the Dutch and Italian composers living in Prague also set German texts here. But also an outstanding German composer was based in Prague at that time, the Krain-born Jakob Handl (Gallus), who was content with the modest position of a choir-regent of the Church of St. John on the Ford, which no longer exists today. He died in 1591. He was quite wrongly given the nickname of a German Palestrina, for he did not join the direction represented by Palestrina, which, like later Bach, concluded the great period of style behind him and must therefore appear conservative. Handl belongs rather to the group of composers who represent the then modern direction, who use chromatics and search for new sound effects. Therefore, he strives for the strongest popular effect. His work still belongs to the A cappella style and was entirely dedicated to the church. His famous death motette is still sung a lot today. He died in 1591 at the age of forty-one and spent only the last six years of his life in Prague. He is one of the most important German composers who have ever lived in Prague . In any case, the reign of Rudolf II is a glorious time for Prague's musical life, as it has never returned since. In addition to the Hofkapelle there were still a lot of musicians and singers in Prague who had German names. Even a German poet composer named Joachim Lange we have to forgive, who in 1606 had "Beautiful and New Worldly Songs" published, which unfortunately were lost. In the time shortly before the outbreak of the Great War, an important musical event still takes place: the founding of a Collegium musicum, whose German statutes are still in existence. It is a Das alte Kotzenztheater, aborted in 1770 / After a lithography by C. Steyrs of the oldest enterprises of this kind and had his seat in the house "Zur ironischen Tür", where musicians and music lovers met regularly and played music after a certain program. Unfortunately this beautiful development found a sudden end in the turmoil of the war and afterwards the music maintenance shifted unilaterally under the pressure of the counter-reformation to the ecclesiastical area. But here was the rule